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February 7, 1997

To: CLS Associates

From: Nicholas Johnson

Re: CLS: Wednesday - Assignment - Focus

[Sent as e-mail this morning.]

Here's the assignment for next Wednesday evening, the focus of our discussion.

What are (a) the categories, and (b) some examples, of the range of legal and public policy issues that are raised by the Information Age/Economy technologies and services (telecommunications, media, electronics)?

[To remind: If the above question is not immediately clear to you, the following are useful references.

(1) Memo of January 25, 1997, "Re: Seminar Papers," posted on our Web page under "Assignments" as "Assignment for January 23-29 Period." See, especially, the section headed "Paper Topics" for a discussion of (a) how our selection of issues is different from "journalism" and (b) what it means to say an issue is "somehow uniquely information-age-based."

(2) E-mail of February 3, 1997, "Re: Class Wednesday; Other Items." See, especially, Part II, "Logically, the next phase we should enter into is . . .." ]

Assignment: We will be following our prior practice (January 15 and 22). That is, you will show up at our firm meeting with a work product, which will be handed in, and for which you personally will be credited, following which we will have a group discussion of the subject for the evening.

Thus, on this occasion, your Wednesday evening submission should present the results of your best research, and thinking, regarding the question above: the range of categories, and examples, of issues.

It should also contain the sources (Internet, other online, hard copy) you used, and those you found most useful, and any you want to nominate for our group bibliography. (In short, each of you is coming up with your own reading list/assignment as well as reading from, and reporting about, it.)

Our discussion will be, obviously, something of a brainstorming session. You all have -- or will have by Wednesday evening -- picked your own (a) new business in your country you intend to propose to Global Telecommunications, Media and Electronics, Inc., and (b) specific legal/policy issue you intend to pursue in your paper. So no one will be free riding on this discussion.

(If we could do "everything you need to know about electrical engineering" in one evening, I don't see why we can't do "every issue you need to raise on a 'Law of Electronic Media' final exam" in one evening! We'll see.)